1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly to a connector for connecting a printed circuit board (PCB) to a flexible circuit board (FPC) or a flexible flat cable (FFC).
2. Description of Related Art
Electrical connectors are widely used for signal or power transmission between electronic elements. Such an electrical connector generally has an insulated housing, a plurality of contacts arranged side by side to be retained in the housing and a metallic shell mounted to the housing for protecting the contacts from unexpectable electromagnetic interference. Said contacts are divided into signal contacts and grounding contacts, and the grounding contacts are usually arranged to electrically connect with the metallic shell to form a grounding route.
A similar electrical connector is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,315,616. The electrical connector comprises an insulated housing having a base extending along a longitudinal direction and a top wall integrally extending from an upper portion of a front surface of the base, a plurality of signal contacts and a grounding contact retained in the base. Each signal contact comprises a contact portion extending forwardly along the top wall of the housing and a solder portion opposite to the contact portion and extending beyond the base for connecting onto a PCB. The grounding contact has a main plate, a plurality of contact portions extending from a lower edge of the main plate along said contact portions of the signal contacts to form a mating space therebetween and a plurality of solder legs also extending from the lower edge to be located among said solder portions for electrically connecting with a grounding circuit of the PCB.
The electrical connector further comprises a metallic shell surrounding around the outer of housing. The top wall acts as one wall of the mating space, and the metallic shell acts as the other wall of the mating space so that make the electrical connector in a small size. However, when a complementary connector is inserted into the mating space, the metallic shell is prone to distort due to its physical property. In addition, the grounding contact has many solder legs among the solder portion of the signal contact resulting in decreasing the space for accommodating the solder portions and restricting the amount of signal contacts.
Hence, an improved electrical connector is highly desired.